Russell Minick

Buddhist Hell Sermon

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hF6AWs_bblqX0CUbAVKAzUr6GK9wThe daily ritual of giving donations to monks is an important part of religious practise for the people of Myanmar — a way of receiving spiritual instruction as they chat with the monks during their rounds.But much of that spiritual life has evaporated since the crackdown on the demonstrations as the monks are no longer the ubiquitous presence they had been for centuries.Residents say the illegal videos are helping to fill that void.”Now the senior monks are taking up that role of giving religious services to the people through these videos. This is a very responsible thing for them to do,” one Yangon resident told AFP.Unable to speak directly to their followers in public, two senior monks — Nyanissara and Kawvida — have recorded their sermons on a video disc titled “The end of sinful people”.In the sermon, they discuss the legend of a ruthless emperor who violated the teachings of the Lord Buddha, which resulted in him, and his followers, being sent to hell.

“When people do evil and act as if it were good, their karma becomes very fragile. That sin will lead to their destruction,” Nyanissara says in the video.”You can find sinful people in hell. Many more people will be going there. Those already in hell are waiting for them,” he says.

Nyanissara is a founder of the respected Sagaing Thitagu World Buddha University in northern Myanmar, which is popular among foreigners who come to Myanmar, the former Burma, to study the religion.His lecture is widely seen here as a rebuke to the junta, and a warning that security forces will pay a price in the afterlife for the beatings of monks during the protests — an unpardonable act in this devoutly Buddhist country.